Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) – R. Linklater

Linklater calls this a “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused (1993) and others note that it picks up just where Boyhood (2014) left off, as a kid starts his first year of college.  True that.  Here we have another crop of unknowns (mostly), starring as college baseball players (though we rarely see them play), living in a frat house environment and acting basically as you would expect young men freed from parental authority might act.  The time is Fall 1980 and Linklater brings the period music, clothes, and attitudes.  It’s part nostalgia and it’s part philosophical exploration of male competitiveness – and a whole lot of seemingly authentic talk (indeed there are only a few bum notes in the script).  Linklater is really a master director at this point and he is able to create real characters who we feel warm towards – there are no “bad” characters here, despite some rivalries and some at whom he affectionately pokes some fun.  But this is a dude’s film about dudes who are always on the prowl for girls, although it doesn’t feel exploitative like a Porky’s variation would – again this is Linklater’s talent to bring some humanity to the reality.  The central character, Jake, played by Blake Jenner, is perhaps the dullest of the lot but he’s also the nicest guy, perhaps signalling Linklater’s own values.  It is what it is – lighter fare with a ingénue cast – but entertaining all the way through.